Hi, Polar bear Knut lived in zoo in Berlin. He was born in another German zoo as I read and transported to Berlin where his keeper Thomas Dorflein (dead in 2008) saved his life feeding him from the bottle. Polar bear Knut had been rejected by his biological mother however I don't know what reasons she had cause she lives till today as I think. Her name is Tosca and she comes from another German zoo though she also lives in Berlin as far as I can understand, nearby Knut. Why did she reject his son? I cannot find any explanations.

Anyway Knut managed to survive without his mother.

The problem with Knut was - Zoo workers in Germany kill animals who are rejected by biological mothers. And Knut was rejected by his biological mother and saved by his keeper who is already dead.

Knut was a star of Berlin zoo as everyone knows and brought a lot of money to it. Now people want to build a monument of Knut to commemorate him and his tragic death.

You know - as I can read PROBABLY the only mistake in this story is that Tosca (Knut's mother) delivered her sons in Berlin when she comes from seaside zoo in the north of Germany. You know there must be some changes of climate between northern Germany and Berlin and she rejected her kids. She could smell it in the air (?) that she should leave them.

They said something was probably going wrong with his brain. His mother abandoned him when he was first born for a reason, but we humans wanted to act like we could fix everything even we understand nothing about nature and how it works. Animals are known to have the ability to detect deficiencies. For instance, Pandas are well known to select the cubs that have higher chances to survive while ignoring the "weaklings". That's why we can train dogs and cats to detect cancer, death, diseases, etc. in a patient. It's part of their animal instinct.

I personally think they shouldn't have interfered with the decision his mother made. On the other hand we did have some good years with him. He was ADORABLE. I remember saying so many aww's seeing his clips everywhere on YouTube.

Hi again in this thread, first sorry for my language errors cause I have made some in my earlier posts here.

Further ... hmmm... I didn't know that pandas select their kids to choose the best ones to survive. Interesting though cruel. But it is just nature and nothing more. Anyway I know rather little about pandas and truly speaking/writing it could be good to read/watch/produce more documentaries/infos about these nice animals. Some good films have already been made but there are still many new possibilities for next generations. The same about white bears and many other animals. Never enough info about wildlife - it is my point of view.

What I want to write is that in Europe we have only brown bears as natural here. White bears aren't natural for Europe. The more issues of climate changes/stresses should be taken into account when dealing with no natural animals. What I think today about death of Knut and his/his twin brother rejection by the biological mother soon after the birth is that probably she also didn't like father of her kids - it can be another reason for the rejection apart from climate differences/stress. As deals death of Knut probably he could also miss his late unnamed twin brother, not a single word about his dead keeper what I had mentioned above. However I want to say I don't try to defend Tosca, Knuts mother, here. For me she was a bad mother rejecting both her kids without any visible reason.

To sum up all these ideas of mine I want to write that in my opinion Knut's death is a scandalous event and I am not going to defend Germans that it wasnot their blame. I think Knut earned really good money and he was a very nice animal so he deserved a vet while he died as a beggar. Knut died like a millionaire without simplest medicaments and it is a scandal to me and will always be. Another German scandal and nothing more.

You know I would have to read more about Knut's disease but I think it is really horrible to die of cancer unexpectably on the eyes of tens/thousands/ millions people. It is something what a human being in the XXI century cannot accept as normal. At least to me it is quite abnormal. I am sorry if you don't agree with me.

To me Knut could be ill and even dead in the age of 4-5 years - I understand it - diseases happen even to the richest ones but such a death of his is a scandal to me and it will always be.

I told some kid the same information I told you about pandas when we were watching Kung Fu Panda 2, and someone corrected me that I had the information wrong. Female pandas select the stronger cub to raise only if they're twins. I did not know it was the twins case. I thought they just select the stronger cubs to raise in general. My apologies for telling you false information.